infectious diseases

(Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia) The European Research Council has awarded Miguel Soares and his team at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Portugal an Advanced Grant of just over 2,2 million euros, to investigate the capacity that an infected individual has to limit the extent of tissue damage caused by different pathogens.

This line of research should identify and pave the way to the development of new therapeutic interventions for various infectious diseases.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Influenza researchers have found that flu strains migrate back and forth between different regions of the world, evolving along the way.

This is contrary to the common belief that flu strains from the tropics are the source of global seasonal epidemics.

Group predicts 522M could have diabetes by 2030 The group expects the number of cases to jump by 90 percent even in Africa, where infectious diseases have previously been the top killer.

(University of Virginia) A vampire-like bacteria that leeches onto specific other bacteria -- including certain human pathogens -- has the potential to serve as a living antibiotic for a range of infectious diseases, a new study indicates.

The World Health Organization sets out a plan to tackle non-communicable lifestyle diseases like heart disease, which now pose a greater global burden than infectious diseases.

(National Science Foundation) New research aimed at controlling the transmission of diseases among humans, other animals and the environment is being made possible by grants from a collaboration among US and UK funding agencies.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) The human body can produce powerful antibodies that shield cells in the laboratory against infection by an array of HIV strains.

In people, however, recent research shows that these broadly neutralizing antibodies are not produced in an efficient or timely enough fashion in HIV-infected individuals to effectively block progression of infection, appearing only after a person has been infected with HIV for at least one year -- by which time the virus has fully established itself within the body.

(Infectious Diseases Society of America) Taiwanese investigators have found that there can be a significantly higher risk of multiple sclerosis (MS) occurring in the year following a shingles, or herpes zoster, attack.

The findings, which support a long-held view on how MS may develop, are published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases and now available online.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today unveiled an innovative new website to help parents and other consumers learn about the most effective way to protect themselves and their children from infectious diseases and learn about immunization.

Vaccines.gov brings together the best in federal resources on vaccine and immunizations to provide consumers with easy-to-understand health information specifically for their needs.

(NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) Day three of this major HIV/AIDS research conference included the following selected presentations from scientists supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.